Operations innovation lead - united kingdom, woking, surrey

welcome to kfc and yum!

who are kfc?

colonel harland sanders opened the first kfc in corbin, kentucky in 1938. he started with one store, 11 herbs and spices, and an idea. from there our incredible brand and product grew to what it is today.

kfc first came to the uk in 1965 with our first restaurant in preston, lancashire. today we are a billion-pound business with over 900 restaurants run by our 28,000 restaurant team members. our headquarters are based at the restaurant support centre (rsc) in woking, surrey - a 24-minute train from waterloo. of the c.900 restaurants in the uk, 900 of our restaurants are owned and operated by 40 franchise partners; the remaining 50 are company owned and run.

we are proud to have received a number of accolades in recognition of our commitment to our employees, including being named as britain's top employer three years running. to work for kfc is to be part of one big family.

who are 'yum!'?

kfc is one of the 3 brands operated by our parent company yum! along with pizza hut and taco bell. we are the world's largest restaurant group with over 40,000 restaurants across the globe.

yum! isn't your average fortune 250 company. we like to do things a little differently. from our world-famous culture of fun and recognition to our focus on your career potential.

our culture

breakthrough results, teamwork and recognition

we believe that our success is driven by the power of our employees working in unison with a shared set of common goals and values. we are very proud that kfc uki is recognised as a key market not only in terms of profit and innovation but also for the talent we grow and develop for yum!.

we invest heavily in our people and helping them drive their personal development. as part of this we give each of our managers in the business the opportunity to go through heartstyles. heartstyles is a tool and strategy to measure and manage culture, building people's self-awareness and helping them to transform their behaviours. this tool can then be used in coaching conversations you have with your team and line manager and to help build effective individual development plans.

we celebrate success every day and to us recognition is much more than just saying thank you- it is about really celebrating achievements, milestones and behaviours. one of the ways we do this is through our own personal recognition awards.

as a company we take our corporate social responsibility very seriously and encourage our employees to 'give something back' through companywide charity efforts.

as an equal opportunity employer, we embrace individuality and diversity. we employ irrespective of background, age, ethnicity, colour, gender, disability, sexual or religious orientation and marital status.

more about the role

the role of operations innovation leader is to re-define and re-engineer the restaurant assets and guest and team member experience of the future for the kfc uki business and, in doing so, increase same-store sales growth. the role holder will work to ensure that the restaurant experience of the future is ever easier, more relevant and more distinctive - both for guests and team members. this challenge will be a mix of project management, operational acumen, innovation mindset and financial/negotiation strategy.

as well as working with uk-based colleagues in the operations, technology and marketing teams to land the kfc uki strategic objectives, as kfc uki is leading the western european restaurant operating agenda, the role holder will also be expected to deliver against these broader strategic objectives by making the restaurant of the future simpler and more digital. s/he will therefore be expected to hit the ground running, partner effectively with the kfc global team in dallas and externally with franchisees. reporting to luke jackson, head of central operations kfc uki, the role holder will be the right-hand key person to manage restaurant innovation projects and push them to fruition; they will also have the opportunity to directly coach exciting talent in their current role.

in this quick, informal, fun, unbureaucratic and truly digital organisation, surrounded by an amazing calibre of people you will have the opportunity to make an extraordinary impact quickly.

what you'll do:

as innovation operations leader, you will:project-manage the restaurant innovation agenda - innovation and transformational change to work alongside the "kitchen of the future" team for the brand across all kfc uki's 950+ restaurants.be a major thought leader on value creation through innovation (tech, digital, robotics) in restaurant and proactively bring forward proposalslay the foundations for the growth of the brand over the next 10+ years by looking at enhancing (or implementing new) sales channels (e.g. mobile ordering, table service, etc.)be relentless on prioritisation and governance - you will be the guardian of projects to be delivered in the next three years, and you will need to see them through from trial to finalisation, whilst ensuring that efficacy is maximised and overlap minimised between projectsreview and drive efficiency, simplification and cost reduction across kfc ukicollaborate with and communicate clearly to franchisees, operations and other teams in the uk and around the world

what we'd love from you

experience

to succeed as operations innovation leader, kfc uki, you will see yourself as an innovation-first leader with a strategic, practical and intellectual understanding of the uk consumer space. you will have previous deep project management experience, financial analysis know-how and be excited by an opportunity to create transformational change. your coachability index will be through the roof, meaning that you will be able to quickly adapt, learn, evolve. with a de facto "chief of staff" dimension, you will also be able to quickly take the pulse of a wide variety of projects and vulgarise for the leadership team the essence of the decision-making that needs to take place.

about you

you will have strong conceptual thinking skills and be unafraid to challenge the status quo. the successful candidate will clearly display the potential to step into a coo in 4-5 years' time. owing to the yum!'s very special culture and lean structure, it is important that you are a self-starter, flexible, humble and action-oriented.

as well as being a great communicator, super smart and operating at a level akin to that of a future coo, you will have / be the following:a balance of designing analytical strategy alongside executional excellence through effective change leadershipadvanced powerpoint skills, coupled with several project management tools know-howstrong gravitas and presentation skillsa great coach cross-functionallya strong commercial mindset, able to bring people along the journey and handle challenges from stakeholders and the skills needed to manage multi-million pound projects and contractsan authentic collaborator with key stakeholders - both within and outside of organisationa rock-solid ambition to one day be a coo or director of operations1)results obsession

you are deadest on delivering projects and can be hands-on, but also "high picture" - whatever is required to get the job done. you have a passion for continuous improvement and the ability to review and identify issues and opportunities in business processes and systems

2)strategy and innovation "smarts"

you have superior theoretical thinking skills and the ability to create and articulate a vision of the future for a function. you are hardworking and passionate about thinking outside the box, to come up with exhaustive solutions that can radically step change entire areas of the business.

3)leadership skills

you are a natural born leader of people who displays tangible humility and leverages their skills and intelligence to take others on their journey, rather than authority. you believe in achieving in order to build credibility and you are comfortable acting in a "second-in-command" capacity to the head of restaurant operations of operations innovation kfc uki managing your own sub-team within the function.

what we can offer you

a career with kfc offers much more than just fantastic earning potential. we reward achievement with amazing incentives and benefits, including;we can offer flexibility - our rsc is in woking.company and performance-related bonuscar allowancegenerous pension with up to 11% company contributionprivate healthcare with the option to increase to include family coverannual holiday allowance starts at 25 days with the option to buy or sell up to 5 extra days per yearrecharge days - an additional 5 days per year to disconnect from our day-to-day (in addition to annual and bank holidays).after 5 years' service, annual holiday allowance increases to 30 daysstudy support may be available for job-related qualificationscompetitive parental leave and flexible return to work optionswellbeing gift - gbp50 to invest in an app that will help your personal health and well-beingwellbeing reimbursement - a fund to claim back costs throughout the year that support your well-being such as vitamins subscriptions, language lessons, gym membership.sanctus - 1:1 mental health coaching sessions...... click apply for full job details

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